Housing Headlines

FRAMINGHAM --- Developers building over-55 housing developments are in limbo as the Framingham City Council is considering several updates to its 13-year-old active adult housing bylaw. Under consideration are allowing developers to pay into a fund rather than build affordable units and requiring that all over-55 developments offer some units geared toward low- and moderate-income residents.

Policy consultant and local zoning expert Amy Dain pens a column that itemizes how many malls are taking a page from the downtown revitalization playbook and reinventing themselves as "lifestyle centers" with some housing, city amenities, open-air shops and restaurants.

BOSTON --- Terrific, thorough, uplifting feature by WGBH's K. Sophie Will on the inspirational story of Darrin Griffin and the two programs that helped him - the Human Services Employment Ladder Program at Goodwill and the Massachusetts Housing & Shelter Alliance's Hospital to Housing Shelter Program, which looks to insert community health workers into the homeless community

SOUTH DENNIS --- In hearings with the Zoning Board of Appeals, neighbors continue to question the impact of the proposed Maritime Landing development on the local water supply. Developer Mark Smith of Cape View Development is seeking a Ch. 40B comprehensive permit from the town to build 28 condominiums, seven of which would be affordable. Some residents and officials are pleased with the way Smith has adjusted his design in response to feedback.

HOPEDALE --- Draper factory complex owner Philip Shwachman is suing the town, a local developer and a railroad company for conspiring to seize the property without compensation. Filed just before Thanksgiving, the suit names 18 defendants, from individual selectmen, to the Housing Authority, to Milford-based developer Lobisser Building Corp., to leadership within the Grafton & Upton Railroad. The town's Urban Renewal Plan hinges on re-purposing the 77-acre site and the million square feet of mill space into a mixed-use development with up to 500 units of housing.

CHELSEA --- The development team of Traggorth Properties and The Neighborhood Developers have announced theuir plan to appeal the Zoning Board of Appeals' denial of their plan to build 42 mixed-income apartments on a vacant lot at the corner of Broadway annd Clinton Street. The ZBA denied the plan in October, expressing a preference for homeownership even though the developers had made several concessions such as lowering the height of the building and adding market rate units. The appeal will be heard in Suffolk Superior Court.